Interesting 2H, 5-way wiring

[Jumble Jumble]

This is cross-posted from my humbucking tele WIP thread but I don't think anyone reads that.

The original wiring on this guitar was:

1 - Bridge humbucker
2 - Bridge split -> neck split in series
3 - Bridge + neck humbuckers
4 - Bridge split + neck split in parallel
5 - Neck humbucker.

Settling in, I wasn't really keen on the position 4 sound. The problem was it was the only position on the switch that didn't have two coils connected in series at any point, so it was half the volume of all the others.

So I tried to think of some other way I could connect them. First I considered wiring each humbucker in parallel, and then connecting them in series, but I wasn't sure how it'd sound and there was no way I could get it in there with all the other combinations on the superswitch.

I decided that in position 4 I'd do the same as position 2, but wire a capacitor in parallel with the coil from the neck pickup. This should knock out a little treble but not in the same way as a tone control, as some of the treble from the bridge coil should still get through.

So I hung a couple of crocodile clips out of the guitar and started testing caps. The effect was nice. I tried a .047, a .033, a .022, a .01 and a .001. I think if I'd had a .015 it might have been good, as for me it was between the .022 and the .010 as to which sounded best. In the end I chose the .010. It's subtly different to the position 2 sound but it's a nice usable sound. A bit thicker and less tele-like.

Here's a diagram in case anyone wants to try it:

(The bare wire from the neck pickup should obviously be grounded too; I just forgot to draw it in)

Note that there's no hope here of having separate volume controls for each pickup. The wires are all over the place and you'd end up with all kinds of crazy stuff going on. You just need master volume and maybe master tone. Obviously this was fine for me as it was going into a tele.

 

[tfarny]

I like a .010 cap on my tone control too, as it rolls off the treble while leaving your midrange, and the tone is pretty usable all the way through the dial.
For a two pickup five way, I've settled on
1. neck
2. neck and bridge series out of phase
3. neck and bridge parallel
4. neck and bridge series in phase
5. bridge

Position 2 is light and stratty but much less so than parallel out of phase. Position 4 is great with lower output pickups but would probably be a monster truck mud fest with hot pickups. On a mega switch there is still room to do some tapping as well, though.

 

[Cagey]

I like a .010 cap on my tone control too, as it rolls off the treble while leaving your midrange, and the tone is pretty usable all the way through the dial. 

I'm thinking that's a good idea, too. I've been using .022uf parts since forever, but even those tend to bite too much off.